“Learning to Listen is a documentary film crossing the dividing lines of experimental music and Sound Art. It is a series of accounts from established artists discussing their work in relation to shifting movements in creative thought and process. The sonic sense is explored through performance, improvisation, technology and sound art. Learning to Listen intends to inform a new audience of work beyond the confines of commercial and traditional sound making. Discourse takes place across the cities of London, Berlin and Amsterdam.”

Between 2002-2004 I made a series of visits to an artist-run space in the old industrial area of Schöneweide, East Berlin where I presented a number of sound installations and performances. This short film documents some of the activity from that time.

“One of the largest areas of now abandoned industrial production and around Berlin can be found in Berlin-Schoneweide. It forms part of the European industrial cultural heritage. Beautiful monuments create the atmosphere of this part of Berlin. They bear witness to the former industries and determine to this day the lives of those who live there. Most of the warehouses and factories gleaming in yellow brick are situated alongside The River Spree. A road runs through their middle. The workers’ living quarters were erected on one side of this road, the sites for production in the other. When AEG/TRO and KWO closed down in 1996, about 25,000 men and women lost their jobs.”

This local area and its current state
Vacant industrial sites
Position and articulate
Within the chosen concept
Recognised / realised / ignored / overcome / resolved
Diversity of the location
Immmerse
Paths of exploration
The enviroment that helped shape those works
He’s doing artificial things